Purple Heart

Matt returns to his squad and settles into the familiarities of “life back in Sadr City” (134): “the chatter of crickets” (134) and the dust “between your teeth” (135); Itchy the stray cat’s “warm, purring body” and the “birdsong at daylight” (135). His squad mates welcome him back with relieved hugs—and a joking smack on the butt from Justin—and Matt learns they’re 12 days into a 30-day cease-fire in the squad’s sector, which means they’re “goof[ing] around” (137) quite a bit. His second day back, Matt asks Justin to play Halo, but Justin says he’s not that into the video game anymore, and Matt gets the sense Justin’s “avoiding being alone with him” (139).

The next night the squad, “bored and restless” (139), takes Wolf’s suggestion to play capture the flag in their night vision goggles, NVGs. Matt finds himself unaccustomed to the “spooky, video-game landscape” (141) of the NVGs after so much time away from the field, and he’s startled by his squad leader Sergeant McNally, who’s just returned from a meeting. Wolf has blamed Matt for the NVG game, but McNally isn’t angry—instead he welcomes Matt back. Even